Having proven, with the terrific “Animal Kingdom,” that he could take a potentially small story of desperate men and blow it up into something much grander, David Michod attempts something like the opposite with “The Rover,” taking the epic, sweeping backdrop of a post-apocalyptic, dusty Australian desert, and turning in a tiny two-hander road movie, that is as spartan as its predecessor was operatic. It’s a mark of just what a talent the director is, then, that he can, on the evidence of this morning’s Cannes press screening, turn in such distinctive and compelling work in either register.
